This invention pertains to a window lock for casement windows operable with either a right-hand or left-hand casement window.
A commercially-successful casement window lock is shown in Van Klompenburg U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,298, owned by the assignee of this application. The window lock has a cam mounted within a casing which is moved both bodily and rotatably into position behind a keeper carried by a window sash and in moving to a lock position the cam draws the keeper and sash into a tightly-closed position. In casement window locks which are normally mounted on a vertical part of the window frame, it is conventional to have the operating handle in a down position when the window is locked. Since casement windows are both right-hand and left-hand, referring to the side of the window on which the vertical pivoting axis for the window is located, it is necessary to have structures of the type shown in the patent built in two different embodiments for mounting at either the right or left-hand side of the window frame which results in increasing the inventory requirements for the window lock.
Additionally, considerable force may be required in tightly closing the window and reducing the effort required to operate the window lock would be an improvement.